Persian embroidery is one of the many forms of the multi-faceted Persian arts. The motives used in the Persian embroidery are mostly floral, especial Persian figures, animals, and patterns related to hunting. Iran is home to one of the richest art heritages in world history and encompasses many disciplines including architecture, painting, weaving, pottery, calligraphy, metalworking and stone masonry. ... Persian may refer to more than one article: the Western name for Iranian (see Iran/Persia naming controversy) Persian, an Iranian language the Persians, an ethnic group a Persian, a breed of cat Persian, a Pokémon character Etymology English Persian < Old English, < Latin *Persianus, < Latin Persia, < ancient Greek Persis...

The Persian embroidered women's trouserings have rich patterns. They were very much in vogue up till the end of the 18th century. With a survival of Victorian modesty, these are usually known as "Gilets Persans". The designs are always of diagonal parallel bands filled with close floral ornamentaion and are very effective. Windsor Castle in Modern Times by Landseer depicts the Queen and the Prince Consort at home in the 1840s. ...

History

Sassanid era

We know that the Persian embroidery existed from the ancient times and at least from the time of the Sassanids. Numerous designs are visible on the dresses of the personages on the rock-sculptures and silverware of that period, and have been classified by Professor Ernst Herzfeld. Also the patterns on the coat of Chosroes II at Taq-e Bostan are in such high relief that they may represent embroidery. Roundels, confronted animals and other familiar motives of Sassanid art were doubtless employed. It is probable that the famous Garden Carpet of Chosroes II was a piece of embroidery. Gold Embroidery Cross-stitch embroidery, Hungary, mid-20th century Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with designs stitched in strands of thread or yarn using a needle. ... Head of king Shapur II (Sasanian dynasty A.D. 4th century). ... Starch-polyester disposable cutlery Cutlery refers to any hand utensil used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food. ... Khosrau II, Parvez (the Victorious), king of Persia, son of Hormizd IV, grandson of Khosrau I, 590 – 628. ... Kermanshah or Taq-i-Bustan , is located in western Iran , four miles north-East of Kermanshah. ...

Later

The Persian embroideries we posses of the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries are almost exclusively divan-coverings or ceremonial cloth for present-trays, while in the eighteenth century and later we have the addition of rugs for the bathing-rooms, prayer-mats, and women's embroidered trousers, known as 'naghshe'. This article should be split into multiple articles accessible from a disambiguation page. ...

Pecularities

The earlier embroideries of Iran are almost all of a type in which the entire ground is covered by the design, while the reverse is true, in the main, of the later pieces, in which the background of one plain colour is made to play its part equally with the varied silks of the needlework. The earlier pieces are almost all closely allied in design to one or other of the many types of carpets. They are worked chiefly in darning-stitch on cotton or loosely-woven linen, while occasionally examples in cross- or tent-stitch are met with. It is perhaps reasonable to assume that the more important class of work, that of carpet-weaving, supplied the original design and that the embroideress adopted it from a type familiar to her. Also it must be remembered that the carpet-weaving was mainly done by men, embroidery by women, so that members of the same family worked at both trades.

Source

Brief guide to Persian embroideries. Victoria and Albert Museum, His Majesty's Stationary Office, London 1950.

External links

• History of the Persian embroidery
• Examples of the Persian embroidery